To Hell and Back With Catatonia: The Romance of Catatonia

Fronted by the irrepressible Cerys Matthews—a modern day Janis Joplin—Catatonia exploded onto the British pop scene in 1998 with hits like ‘Mulder and Scully’ and ‘Road Rage’. Number one albums like International Velvet established them as a major pop force.

When Catatonia started out, Brian Wright had just suffered the death of his wife and his mother and was spiralling into depression and alcoholism, when an ephiphanal Catatonia gig turned his life around. Wright began to follow the band, and later befriended them. All the while, Catatonia’s rise paralleled his own recovery.

With a new album out in the summer of 2001, Catatonia are on the verge of breaking the U.S.